Ian Lewis' Blog

The pilot of the Enola Gay that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Paul Tibbets, has died. He was a staunch defender of the plan to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, saying it saved lives when compared to the prospect of a full scale invasion of Japan. A point of view that is very controversial in Japan. Somewhat recently the Defence Minister of Japan, Fumio Kyuma, was forced to resign because of statements he made about the dropping of the atomic bomb being justified. During his life he was repeatedly criticized for his beliefs in the justification of dropping the bomb. But while his thoughts on the subject may be controversial in Japan, there is no doubting the bomb's, and his place in history. He says he can sleep well at night and I say, good for him.

I for one am tired of that debate. Whether the bomb was justified by the fact that in the end it ended the war sooner and saved lives that would be lost in a direct invasion of Japan, one could never know. Without trying to trivialized it, we're crying over 50 year old spilled milk. The point is what is done is done. However, I respect and identify with Japan's position on nuclear weapons, and the willingness of the Japanese people to continue under the, U.S. written, pacifist constitiution. I just don't think it's worth it to say that the bomb was justified or not.

Instead of trying to argue whether using nuclear weapons in that case was justifiable, I think we should examine why it was dropped, and attempt to prevent that situation from occurring again. This means reducing the number of nuclear weapons, creating a culture where using nuclear weapons is unacceptable, and avoiding war where using nuclear weapons would become an option.